A quick note to everyone!

We have really enjoyed the response to the Arkansas State Parks ParkCache Challenge. Congratulations to the recent finishers. I report on the number of people that have been to them almost monthly to the Parks & Tourism Commission and they love hearing about it. I expect that this program will be going on for a long, long time.

One thing I need to mention. Today we had a cacher who said he was from Louisiana show up at on of our parks in the Ozarks to geocache. The park is one of those hit by the ice storm and is closed for safety issues. This gentleman was met at the gate by the park superintendent and when told that the park was closed he said he would just park down the road and "sneak" in. At that point the superintendent (a state law enforcement officer) informed him that if he caught him in the park after warning him that he would be arrested. To this the man said that he would just sneak into another park that hadn't seen him yet.

I know that geocachers are generally better than that and that Arkansas Geocachers respect the rules. I just wanted to give you a heads up that if you come across any cachers with the attitude of this guy, please take a second and explain how following the rules is one of the things that allows us to have geocaching in our parks.

Usually it's just one bad apple that can spoil it for the rest of us. Thanks for your support of this program and the Arkansas State Parks.

As one of the 10 who have completed the challenge (and the latest) it would be a shame for the Park Cache Challenge to be discontinued. I want to say thank you for the time and effort in not only implementing and placing the caches, but to continually update their status and ensure they are there. For the record, I found all 53 and all the containers were in good shape and they were all THERE. Thank you again for the efforts of the Arkansas State Parks, the employees of the Arkansas State Parks, and to you. We had a blast. :P :P :P :P :P :P :P :P :P :P :P :P

So sorry this guy just can't play by the rules, 99.9% of us go by the rules, but being a state employee also for the last 31 years (State Police) I deal with people like that every day. I am sure your ranger has also.. Some just don't learn.
I want to also thank the State Parks for all the support to geocaching and we will be watching the State Parks web site to see when the parks in the NE part of the State are back open. Looking forward to visiting all of the parks in that part of the State..

We have only made a dent in visiting the state park caches, but can't say enough good about them. So far, it has been a great experience. We have already seen several parks that we probably would never have thought to visit if it wasn't for a cache there. We are trying to explore each park as we seek out the state park cache. It's taking longer to gather all 52, but we are enjoying each unique feature that every park offers. We are so lucky to live in a state with such wonderful, free , well maintained parks to explore and share. We have also been greeted with extremely friendly, helpful staff. Thank you to everyone who has made all of this possible.
We are disappointed to learn that someone would try and break the rules by sneaking into a park that is closed for everyone's safety. We hope that he is the extreme exception.
Thank you again for making this challenge possible. Happy Caching, Nukeworker and Racquetball Girl